THE LAST WEEK!!!

JUST ONE MORE WEEK BEFORE I head off to Oz.
Autumn is well and truly here.  I never have seen so many fallen leaves. How do the trees do it? I wonder.  So I have been busy making compost and bagging up leaves I cannot use just now but will become very handy in the Spring when the lawn will need cutting once more and the only leaves I will have are those stored in large black plastic bags.  Compost has been massive this year and I have two piles going.

The highlight of this month has been my 'Visit Robert's House' party the first Sunday afternoon of this month.  What a blast!  Must have had over forty people in the house at one point.

Many of you will have been wondering how much Corning was affected by Hurricane Sandy and the later storm.  The answer is...Hardly at all.  We got some good winds and some rain for two or three days but little damage.  Power was out for folk who live up in the more hilly, and therefore more exposed, areas.  Here in the valley, we were pretty snug.  Precluded from outside work, I read prodigiusly around the next posting for another blog ('BeliefAccordingTo...').  This has turned out to be really hard work but I hope to complete that posting this week.

The rain and cold (we have days now when the temperature is below freezing) have held me back somewhat on the last House Project, concreting and tiling around the front of the Sunroom,  This will stop the mild intrusion of moisture and reflect more winter sunlight into this room.  It will function as the rear entrance and mudroom once I am back in early February.  I am looking forward to sitting there in the warmth while the snow lays round about (smooth, and crisp and even, as the carol goes).  The story of this last outside project I will tell in a posting on the 'HouseAccording...' blog.  I should have the tiling finished mid-week or so when I will be able to post photos of that little bit of work.  Did I say, 'Little bit of work'?  I have had to mix the concrete by hand (oh, how miss that nice electric motor driven mixer I had back in Oz!).  I have done that for five separate slabs, not to mention the earlier work for the underlying fill and the excavation before that.  Today I put down the first nine tiles and felt very satisfied with myself.

So, it will be off to Oz early next Monday morning.  First to San Fancisco to stay with friends for a few days, until Thanksgiving Dinner with them, after which I will hop on the BART out to the airport to disappear into the big tin bird then to emerge on the following Saturday morning in Sydney.  Not looking forward to the long flight and it is a wonder to me that I can do it.  But then, I have had lots of practice as I have been making that flight about one a year since 1987.  Now that I am getting to be an old chap, perhaps I will make it less often.  Speaking of old chaps, one of my brothers just had his 87th birthday.  The other is a year or two older.

This time I will see all my family... my son and daughter and their partners (in Sydney and Adelaide), my sister (in Adelaide) and five of my six grandchildren, especially anticipating meeting for the first time my third granddaughter, Pepper.  Also, along the way, lots of old friends to revisit and catch up on things. On the way back to Corning, I will detour via Colorado to catch up with my elder daughter and eldest granddaughter.  Of course, there will also be some skiing.

I will write news along the way.